PS Vita: Release Date update for Japan, still 2012 in UK, US

We have some good news for those of you who are looking forward to picking up a Sony PlayStation Vita this year in one of the Asian countries. It’s still on course for a release before the end of the year, but those in the UK and US will have to remain patient until the first few months of 2012.

We have heard fresh details that the PS Vita will now release in Japan and Hong Kong on November 12, according to a machine translation from French website GamaLive. You should know that Sony has remained adamant that the device would release towards this period, and it’s the first time that an official date of some sort for Asia has been revealed. Although this hasn’t come from Sony directly, it’s certainly cause for optimism for those planning to import or happen to live in Japan or Hong Kong.

As revealed at E3 this year, the price for the PS Vita will be 24,980 Yen for the WiFi version and 29,980 for the premium WiFi + 3G model. The device is pretty expensive on a whole we feel so we definitely recommend going all out and buying the 3G version for 5,000 Yen extra if you’re willing to import of course – it will be worth it in the long run.

Dont forget that the Vita will utilize game cards this time around unlike the UMD as featured on the current PSP models. This will be similar to the Nintendo 3DS game cards, while memory will come in the form of smaller memory cards, similar to MicroSD cards in size, but will be Sony’s own format known as the NVG card coming in 2GB and 4GB capacities.

Considering we are now in September, we expect it won’t be long until Sony announce official release date information for their Asia launch, while at the same time it would be nice if they also put a solid release on the Western releases in the US and Europe as well to lessen the pain as everyone in Asia gets their mits on the PSP2 first.

Are you planning to import this device or do you consider it a risky, not to mention expensive ordeal?